Title and Author: Choice I choose this book because the first book in the series, Life as We Knew It, was an amazing piece of literature that I was forced to read over the summer but I ended up loving it. So that just got me hooked into the sequel, I love it, and I now also want to read the finale book. I also choose this book because of the story it had to tell and the genre of book it is. Genre The genre of books that this falls into is young adult fiction, apocalyptic fiction, and science fiction novel. It falls into adult fiction because of its adult themes like death always around them waiting to strike. The shear amount of death of non-character people places it into apocalyptic fiction but back to young adult fiction. A very strong presence of specific faith brings it into this category due to faith being taboo in other genres. The meteor not killing the moon is a part of science fiction. The volcanoes erupting is part of the science fiction too, it impossible that the gravity from the moon would affect the volcanoes and the ash would cover the entire planet. Famine brings it into the young adult genre as well with such a mature theme present. I would say it would also fall into the drama category with all of the suspense and thrills it gives you. The death of one of the main characters, which shall remain nameless, takes this to a whole new level. This is a great piece of writing and is something everyone should give a try. This is in an award winning series for a reason and its very evident. Plot The plot begins before the end of the world with Alex complaining about work and worrying about the meteor that will hit the moon. Then the end begins with the meteor strike moving the moon’s orbit closer to the earth causing all sorts of natural disasters to happen. Alex’s mother dies in the subway when it floods and his father died in Puerto Rico due to a tsunami hitting the village where he was. They had to juggle school with survival and were scared they did not have enough food. Alex then sent his sister Bri to a convent to protect her and make sure she’s fed and since the schools were open for the summer so the kids could eat Alex and his other sister Julie were fine with food since the lunches at school and the stuff they could find. Then the weather went south in a hurry, the climate changed and it became the worst winter ever. All the food crops died and the search for food became tough. Alex and his friend Kevin started body shopping, searching corpses for stuff to trade in for food. Then Bri came home but with asthma due to the stuff in the air. Then survival got tougher with no more food and with the death of Kevin. It ends with the death of someone close and Alex failing in something important. Characters The first and most important character is Alex Morales, the protagonist of the story. He is a very kind and carrying person, also very religious. “Much to Alex’s relief, at Mass Father Franco made no announcements,” pg. 39. He is also shown to be optimistic early on with him holding the hope that both of his parents are still alive even though most of the evidence is to the contrary. His mother had been missing for a while when he checked in to see if she was alive “She was called in Wednesday night. Can you find out if she’s there, if she’s working?” pg. 42. He deeply cares for his sisters and is always watching out for them even going so far as to send the older, Bri, of his two younger sisters to a convent to keep her safe and feed. He does have a bit of a temper as seen when he hits his youngest sister, Julie. “Without even thinking. Alex slapped her hard across her face,” pg. 69. Over the course of the book he began to lose faith in his religion and continued to become more protective of his sisters. He grew colder as well from being surrounded by death and watching his best friend, Kevin, die near the end of the book. The second most important character to the story is Alex’s youngest sister Julie Morales. She is the one that spends the most time with Alex since she was the one who stayed in New York with him. She always went with him to the food line but one time she got separated from him and almost got hurt, the experience really shook her up. Over the course of the story she went from being really lazy to very helpful. “Can I help? Julie carried the dishes and forks to the sink,” pg. 175. She was always worried about her sister, Bri, and was completely distraught with her death at the end of the book, “Bri? Julie cried. Bri, wake up. She bent down and began to shake her. Wake up! Wake up!” Julie was not at all scared of dying during the book she was afraid of being alone during the book, scared of Alex and Bri and Kevin dying. She was the one who became the most different and matured during the course of the story. The final character of importance to the story is Alex’s best friend Kevin Daley. He taught Alex to body shop, which is the art of searching a dead body for its belongings and trading it in for food and other essentials. He also gives Alex his bags of food from the food line. “I have something for you, he said handing Alex the brown paper bag,” pg. 76. He was a very kind kid who would do anything for Alex and his sisters. He did not have much development during the course of the story. He died near the end of the book because of an iced up branch falling and breaking his neck. “Instead he turned around and saw Kevin lying on the sidewalk with an ice-laden tree limb across his neck, pinning him down.” Big Ideas There are many big ideas in this book. A main one is hope. This is shown through the characters trying to keep their faith during the story. Bri is always hoping that they will find out that their parents are alive and that everything will be better. The situation with the moon and the climate change is what they want to be better. During the story there is always a sense of hope that everything will be better. Death is a major idea, like it is always coming and that it will happen. It does happen to many people during the story, Alex’s parents, Bri and Kevin along with most of the people in New York. Escape is also a big idea. Them needing to get out of the city to survive, like when Alex sent Bri away and when they tried to get out near the end. The end of the world is the major theme along with family. They try to survive when the world is ending while still trying to keep their small family together. Family loves each other so that would put Alex, Bri, Julie, Kevin, Fathers Franco and Mulroney under the moniker of family. They are always looking out for one another and loving each other. That’s what made the deaths of Kevin and Bri so strong and moving. The final theme would be not getting your happy ending. That is brought on by all of the death and the failure and struggle throughout this story. Major Conflict They major conflict in this book is the struggle to survive. There was never enough food for the characters during the story and Alex is forced to make some tough decisions to keep himself and his sisters alive. Without their parents Alex has to take responsibility for himself and his sister. He needs to go body shopping, searching corpses for valuables to trade for food and other goods, so that everyone would have food, what little there is. He also sent his sister, Bri, to a convent so she would get fed and be safe but also so he wouldn’t have to worry about food for himself and Julie. Kevin, Alex’s friend, would give him his food from the line so that Alex and his family could have more so they could survive. When the schools remained open during the summer so the kids could eat lunch that would have helped but soon the freeze came. It was the worst winter in history and it came in during September. It killed all of the crops and thus the food got even scarcer making survival even more difficult. The weather is a hazard all its own so it’s dangerous to go outside. That’s how Kevin died due to the falling, iced up, branch. Flu also spread like a plague killing even more people. Alex caught it but survived. All of these factors and even the deranged and hopeless killers make it horribly difficult to survive during the end of the world. Image Reasons An image I would associate with this book is the Christian Cross. Alex and his family are very religious and a lot of the plot revolves around him struggling to keep faith even after everything that happened. It’s something that is always with Alex during the story; him needing to know God has his back. Alex tries to remain faithful but with everything going on with his family sometimes he just can’t. It is the very symbol of Christ and is always connected to Him, like Alex and his family. Alex always made a point to go to Mass and he even repented during the story for being a bad brother. Five Words My first word is bodega, which is a small store usually on a corner in big cities. “What’s happening at the bodega?” is the example sentence. My second word is dramatica, which is the Spanish word for a dramatic person. The example sentence is, “One dramaica in the family is enough.” My third word is pessimistic, which means someone who is acting negative. The example sentence is “He might have had the bad luck to catch the only pessimistic scientist on TV. My forth word is postulants, which is a very religious, nun like, woman. The example sentence of this word is, “I don’t care if postulants don’t wear lipstick.” My final word is spoiled, which in the meaning means given much more than someone needs. My final example sentence is “I was so spoiled, he thought.” Existing Work Similarities One piece of work I find similar to the book is the video game inFamous. The setting in New York or a New York inspired city during a post disaster plague ridden time is a similarity. Both the book and the game have mail protagonists but that’s as far as the similarities go. The Dead and the Gone is of course similar to the first book in the series, Life as We Knew it, the setting of a cold apocalyptic area and the plot of struggle for survival and a strong feel of family. The strong fell of family makes it similar to the movie Marley and Me, both of them try to keep their families together but the completely different settings and feelings otherwise make that the only similarity there. Alex also has some similarities to Superman. A young man from humble beginnings forced into becoming a hero. Yes Superman is more glorious but Alex still has his moments of awesome. There is also a similarity between this book and the video games series Left 4 Dead. A group of people left alone during the apocalypse to fight of the death an try to survive against the odds. The comic mini-series Flashpoint is similar to this. The Flash is thrown into a situation where he is the only hope, like Alex, forced to work to save himself and the world while its ending. He only gets out just before the worst comes but the worst will come, death for all. Book Review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/428869814
Bl. 1
10/9/12
The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Title and Author: Choice
I choose this book because the first book in the series, Life as We Knew It, was an amazing piece of literature that I was forced to read over the summer but I ended up loving it. So that just got me hooked into the sequel, I love it, and I now also want to read the finale book. I also choose this book because of the story it had to tell and the genre of book it is.
Genre
The genre of books that this falls into is young adult fiction, apocalyptic fiction, and science fiction novel. It falls into adult fiction because of its adult themes like death always around them waiting to strike. The shear amount of death of non-character people places it into apocalyptic fiction but back to young adult fiction. A very strong presence of specific faith brings it into this category due to faith being taboo in other genres. The meteor not killing the moon is a part of science fiction. The volcanoes erupting is part of the science fiction too, it impossible that the gravity from the moon would affect the volcanoes and the ash would cover the entire planet. Famine brings it into the young adult genre as well with such a mature theme present. I would say it would also fall into the drama category with all of the suspense and thrills it gives you. The death of one of the main characters, which shall remain nameless, takes this to a whole new level. This is a great piece of writing and is something everyone should give a try. This is in an award winning series for a reason and its very evident.
Plot
The plot begins before the end of the world with Alex complaining about work and worrying about the meteor that will hit the moon. Then the end begins with the meteor strike moving the moon’s orbit closer to the earth causing all sorts of natural disasters to happen. Alex’s mother dies in the subway when it floods and his father died in Puerto Rico due to a tsunami hitting the village where he was. They had to juggle school with survival and were scared they did not have enough food. Alex then sent his sister Bri to a convent to protect her and make sure she’s fed and since the schools were open for the summer so the kids could eat Alex and his other sister Julie were fine with food since the lunches at school and the stuff they could find. Then the weather went south in a hurry, the climate changed and it became the worst winter ever. All the food crops died and the search for food became tough. Alex and his friend Kevin started body shopping, searching corpses for stuff to trade in for food. Then Bri came home but with asthma due to the stuff in the air. Then survival got tougher with no more food and with the death of Kevin. It ends with the death of someone close and Alex failing in something important.
Characters
The first and most important character is Alex Morales, the protagonist of the story. He is a very kind and carrying person, also very religious. “Much to Alex’s relief, at Mass Father Franco made no announcements,” pg. 39. He is also shown to be optimistic early on with him holding the hope that both of his parents are still alive even though most of the evidence is to the contrary. His mother had been missing for a while when he checked in to see if she was alive “She was called in Wednesday night. Can you find out if she’s there, if she’s working?” pg. 42. He deeply cares for his sisters and is always watching out for them even going so far as to send the older, Bri, of his two younger sisters to a convent to keep her safe and feed. He does have a bit of a temper as seen when he hits his youngest sister, Julie. “Without even thinking. Alex slapped her hard across her face,” pg. 69. Over the course of the book he began to lose faith in his religion and continued to become more protective of his sisters. He grew colder as well from being surrounded by death and watching his best friend, Kevin, die near the end of the book.
The second most important character to the story is Alex’s youngest sister Julie Morales. She is the one that spends the most time with Alex since she was the one who stayed in New York with him. She always went with him to the food line but one time she got separated from him and almost got hurt, the experience really shook her up. Over the course of the story she went from being really lazy to very helpful. “Can I help? Julie carried the dishes and forks to the sink,” pg. 175. She was always worried about her sister, Bri, and was completely distraught with her death at the end of the book, “Bri? Julie cried. Bri, wake up. She bent down and began to shake her. Wake up! Wake up!” Julie was not at all scared of dying during the book she was afraid of being alone during the book, scared of Alex and Bri and Kevin dying. She was the one who became the most different and matured during the course of the story.
The final character of importance to the story is Alex’s best friend Kevin Daley. He taught Alex to body shop, which is the art of searching a dead body for its belongings and trading it in for food and other essentials. He also gives Alex his bags of food from the food line. “I have something for you, he said handing Alex the brown paper bag,” pg. 76. He was a very kind kid who would do anything for Alex and his sisters. He did not have much development during the course of the story. He died near the end of the book because of an iced up branch falling and breaking his neck. “Instead he turned around and saw Kevin lying on the sidewalk with an ice-laden tree limb across his neck, pinning him down.”
Big Ideas
There are many big ideas in this book. A main one is hope. This is shown through the characters trying to keep their faith during the story. Bri is always hoping that they will find out that their parents are alive and that everything will be better. The situation with the moon and the climate change is what they want to be better. During the story there is always a sense of hope that everything will be better. Death is a major idea, like it is always coming and that it will happen. It does happen to many people during the story, Alex’s parents, Bri and Kevin along with most of the people in New York. Escape is also a big idea. Them needing to get out of the city to survive, like when Alex sent Bri away and when they tried to get out near the end. The end of the world is the major theme along with family. They try to survive when the world is ending while still trying to keep their small family together. Family loves each other so that would put Alex, Bri, Julie, Kevin, Fathers Franco and Mulroney under the moniker of family. They are always looking out for one another and loving each other. That’s what made the deaths of Kevin and Bri so strong and moving. The final theme would be not getting your happy ending. That is brought on by all of the death and the failure and struggle throughout this story.
Major Conflict
They major conflict in this book is the struggle to survive. There was never enough food for the characters during the story and Alex is forced to make some tough decisions to keep himself and his sisters alive. Without their parents Alex has to take responsibility for himself and his sister. He needs to go body shopping, searching corpses for valuables to trade for food and other goods, so that everyone would have food, what little there is. He also sent his sister, Bri, to a convent so she would get fed and be safe but also so he wouldn’t have to worry about food for himself and Julie. Kevin, Alex’s friend, would give him his food from the line so that Alex and his family could have more so they could survive. When the schools remained open during the summer so the kids could eat lunch that would have helped but soon the freeze came. It was the worst winter in history and it came in during September. It killed all of the crops and thus the food got even scarcer making survival even more difficult. The weather is a hazard all its own so it’s dangerous to go outside. That’s how Kevin died due to the falling, iced up, branch. Flu also spread like a plague killing even more people. Alex caught it but survived. All of these factors and even the deranged and hopeless killers make it horribly difficult to survive during the end of the world.
Image Reasons
An image I would associate with this book is the Christian Cross. Alex and his family are very religious and a lot of the plot revolves around him struggling to keep faith even after everything that happened. It’s something that is always with Alex during the story; him needing to know God has his back. Alex tries to remain faithful but with everything going on with his family sometimes he just can’t. It is the very symbol of Christ and is always connected to Him, like Alex and his family. Alex always made a point to go to Mass and he even repented during the story for being a bad brother.
Five Words
My first word is bodega, which is a small store usually on a corner in big cities. “What’s happening at the bodega?” is the example sentence. My second word is dramatica, which is the Spanish word for a dramatic person. The example sentence is, “One dramaica in the family is enough.” My third word is pessimistic, which means someone who is acting negative. The example sentence is “He might have had the bad luck to catch the only pessimistic scientist on TV. My forth word is postulants, which is a very religious, nun like, woman. The example sentence of this word is, “I don’t care if postulants don’t wear lipstick.” My final word is spoiled, which in the meaning means given much more than someone needs. My final example sentence is “I was so spoiled, he thought.”
Existing Work Similarities
One piece of work I find similar to the book is the video game inFamous. The setting in New York or a New York inspired city during a post disaster plague ridden time is a similarity. Both the book and the game have mail protagonists but that’s as far as the similarities go. The Dead and the Gone is of course similar to the first book in the series, Life as We Knew it, the setting of a cold apocalyptic area and the plot of struggle for survival and a strong feel of family. The strong fell of family makes it similar to the movie Marley and Me, both of them try to keep their families together but the completely different settings and feelings otherwise make that the only similarity there. Alex also has some similarities to Superman. A young man from humble beginnings forced into becoming a hero. Yes Superman is more glorious but Alex still has his moments of awesome. There is also a similarity between this book and the video games series Left 4 Dead. A group of people left alone during the apocalypse to fight of the death an try to survive against the odds. The comic mini-series Flashpoint is similar to this. The Flash is thrown into a situation where he is the only hope, like Alex, forced to work to save himself and the world while its ending. He only gets out just before the worst comes but the worst will come, death for all.
Book Review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/428869814
Halo: The Fall of Reach By Eric Nylund